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By Vernon Matters Staff

Report sheds new light on housing affordability

Aug 7, 2019 | 4:43 PM

The Canadian Home Builders Association has launched a new website aimed at informing voters about housing affordability ahead of this fall’s federal election.

The site at www.affordabiity.ca looks at factors affecting the price of homes and will examine party platforms and policies that affect housing.

“As party platforms become available, policies that affect housing will be summarized and explained through the affordability lens. CHBA is planning a multi-faceted federal election campaign to drive traffic to the website to inform voters, candidates, and media about the issues,” stated a CHBA news release.

“Housing Affordability is an issue we hear about often and it’s a top concern of all Canadians,” said Cassidy deVeer, president, Canadian Home Builders Association Central Okanagan (CHBA-CO). “When buyers hear their homes include more than $94,000 in tax you get their attention quickly.”

A recent report, commissioned by the B.C. Chapter of the CHBA, completed in 2019 and not released publically until now, reveals that one new house built and sold in the Central Okanagan raises more than 94,000 in revenues split by three governments.

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The report, “Estimating the Benefits to Government of New Home Construction” produced by charter accountancy and business advisory firm MNP, studied how the building of a new home is affected by development fees and charges in nine communities across B.C. The report also details the tax revenue raised on the construction of a townhome and is available here.

The report looked at both fees and taxes directly levied on the construction and sale of new homes and additional revenues generated through income taxes and taxes on the construction materials.

Additional revenues were income tax paid by those employed in building homes and provincial sales taxes generated from the purchase of materials.

The report did not take into account the current Energy Step Code charges.

by Vernon Matters Staff
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